A Deal With the Devil

I know someone who lost several family members and two pets over the last six months. The relatives were close--not the type who hide in Alaska and are not seen for years--but the near and dear who they spoke to and interacted with on a regular basis. In fact, they were favorites.

The family dog was a favorite too, so much so in fact that many said she was the best dog they had ever known. 

So a bargain was struck by the owner after the dog started to act sick. Please, they said, let us have the dog. You have taken a godmother, a grandmother, a great-grandmother--why do you need the beloved pet? She is young. Let her live. Let her live and things will be put on hold. In fact, it would be taken as a sign that maybe they would reconsider their atheism. They would even pray again. Let them have the dog! Fix her--fix her and let them keep her until she was older, with grey around her muzzle and she had a hard time walking--not because of an illness--but because she had genuinely been around the block enough times.

The career could be put on hold too--it could wait. They could even focus on church. Just give her a few more years.

They closed their eyes peacefully that night because the vet called and told them that even though she had a stroke, her neurological symptoms were improving. 

But the phone rang at 7:00 am, and middle of the night and early morning phone calls are rarely good news. This was no different.

The dog was worse, in fact she was worse off than any of the other dogs at the hospital--and now she was suffering. So now a choice had to be made.

She was gone by noon.

They still had plenty to be thankful for. They had each other. 

But the point is there was no one listening. No prayers were answered, and it was the final straw. Desperate times make us do desperate things, and in this case the last-ditch prayers once again fell on deaf ears--or more likely just echoed on and on into space.

We are fools. We are raised to genuflect to an being that we never see. We are told to love someone who does not speak to us when we talk, or answer our heart-felt prayers. We are told to give up our earthly lives and through faith live for a spirit who instills separateness and judgement in a world that so much needs togetherness. 

Maybe they did it wrong. Maybe they were speaking to someone who is too occupied, or confused, or overwhelmed. Maybe they needed to speak to someone who would listen.

Maybe there is no one listening.

They asked me what was worse, if someone was listening and chose to ignore them? Or if there was no one at all. 

Isaac Asimov, C.S. Lewis, and the Reagan Doctrine

I was feeling inadequate and incomplete because of my skepticism about religion and God, so I requested a clear indication.

And it did seem that the answer to my request for a signal of whether God was indeed there was all signs point to yes.

And then, of course, I had to start thinking.

My average education was not serving me well here, so I looked up two scholars, Isaac Asimov, and C.S. Lewis. 

Both frighteningly over educated, and born within 25 years of one-another, they had strikingly different views of God and religion.

Lewis, from Ireland, was an atheist, then theist, and eventually a devout Christian.

Asimov, originally from Russia but smuggled into the United States by his parents, probably could be called a reluctant atheist.

Lewis writes in blossoming, flowing and rich descriptions in contrast with Asimov's sharp, clean and direct sentences.  Asimov won Nebula and Hugo awards for his writings, and his short story "Nightfall" is considered by many the best science fiction story ever written.  Read "Nightfall" here:

http://doctord.dyndns.org:8000/stories/nightfall.htm

Lewis has written the Narnia series, The Screwtape Letters, and many additional Christian-themed books, several made into well-known and popular movies.  He was moved to re-devotion to Christianity partially by his good friend J. R. R. Tolkien, author of The Hobbit.

Asimov called himself an atheist, but with reservations.  He believed the term stated what he did not believe in, but neglected what he did.  He considered himself a humanist.  Although he wrote in simple and straightforward sentences, his mind was anything but simple.  He was a long-standing member of Mensa, and served as VP of the High IQ Society.

And now to the theological arguments.

Lewis's books argue that most evidence is based in favor of Christianity, and reasonable people should therefore be Christian.  (This is the most simplified version of his idea.)  He did not feel one should believe in Christianity if, in their opinion, the signs pointed otherwise  He did not believe "leaps of faith" served a skeptic any purpose.  But, for those who considered themselves devout Christians, he believed it better "to believe based on faith rather than evidence.  For a complete view of Lewis's ideals please read here:

http://atheism.about.com/od/cslewisnarnia/a/apologist.htm

Asimov pointed out that Ronald Reagan stated that anyone who does not believe in God cannot be trusted because they have nothing to motivate them to behave properly.  Asimov felt this was sad, inferring that people needed to be bribed and scared into behaving a certain way according to the "Reagan Doctrine," and we do not have the ability to keep our word or behave properly simply based on a sense of honor.  If we help someone, keep a promise, or just act basically decent, we are merely buying a "ticket to heaven."

I found the Reagan Doctrine fascinating, and hope you take the time to read this interesting treatise on a touchy subject.  :)

http://www.skeptictank.org/isaac.htm

Day 12 of 100 Unfortunate Days

Everyone thinks the anti-Christ is the devil, but it’s not. It’s a person just like you or me. Then the anti-Christ could tell you that if you do not go to church and follow him, you will go to hell. Or maybe he is right and IF you go to church you are following not the teachings of God, but of Satan. Satan is the father of lies, right? How the hell are we supposed to know who is lying